Our Company Story

The voice of the consumer has a powerful impact on business today.

But it wasn't always that way. Back in 2002, online reviews were not yet a part of the fabric of consumer decision-making and their influence was still unproven. Yelp! was only an expression a cartoon character made when it stubbed its toe. And Google was still focusing on just being a good search engine.

When a particularly polarizing car-buying experience at a local dealership led our founder, Chip Grueter, a car enthusiast and web developer by trade, to search for an online outlet to broadcast his story, he came up empty. So, he decided to build one himself — and DealerRater was born.

Today, nearly 3,000,000 consumer reviews later, DealerRater is the global standard for car dealership reviews and research — and more than 14 million consumers are exposed to our reviewers' content every month.

We've connected millions of consumers with the right car dealership for them, and hopefully made the process a little less scary and more transparent along the way.

If you're visiting our site to write a review, we're grateful for your important contribution to our vibrant community. If you're here to research the right dealership to work with, do so with confidence knowing that we carefully screen each review to ensure it's a real review written by a real consumer.

And finally, if you're a dealer, we'd encourage you to contact us at the number below to learn more about how we can help you better connect with in-market prospects and leverage the great feedback that consumers are posting about your dealership.